Orange Indian

This turned into a little of a rush job, and I'll probably have to go back and redo a bit of this at some point in time.  I wanted to finish this today, as this has been a lunchtime painting.  Today is probably my last day of work for the year, and I didn't want it sitting around unfinished for two more weeks.

I got the bike to stand out a bit from the background which I think is good, but I don't think I really captured the essence of this bike.  I'll definitely have to try it again at some time.  In the mean time, hope you all enjoy.

A Clockwork Green????

I got all excited this afternoon when I got an email from Etsy.  It seems that the last clock I made sold this morning!!!  I was so excited to hear it I went out and build another one.  Of course its not the same, not even close, but this one is cute.  Its a little clock, but has really nice symmetry.

This clock is made from 6 hard drive controller boards and one hard drive platter.   Luckily for me, all the holes lined up and  putting it together was fairly straightforward.  Sometimes I have drill my own holes to make a shape I like, and sometimes I just have to find alternative ways to get the look out of the piece that I want.





As you can see the boards overlap each other and surround the platter.  It gives it some interest as you look at it.

For any of you interested in this clock, it can be found in my etsy shop at Dabfly Arts on Etsy.

Thank you for looking, and enjoy.

Full Circle?

About a year ago, I painted about a half a dozen old cars.  When I was done, I thought I would never paint another.  Well, since I did that green motorcycle, I've kind of rekindled the fire for these old cars.  To that end, here is the most recent.  This one happens to be a Model T roadster.

It seems as though I've forgotten how to paint foliage.  Actually, as I painted this, it seemed like I forgot how to paint everything.  I know thats not quite right, it just seemed like it.  Well, anyway, enjoy!

Green Motorcycle

Ok, I've been trying to paint a few paintings recently, and have been having a few problems.  I am not a trained painter.  I've never taken a course, and I don't prescribe to any  real system to do my paintings.  I have, however, reviewed like a million videos, and online tutorials on how to paint.  At this point in my artistic career, I should tell you I think they are all bunko!

I've done a few paintings recently (ones that you will never see) that were painted in this more traditional way.  Sky first, then background, foreground, blah blah blah.   They all stunk.  I think that method isn't going to work for me.  Looking back at all the pictures that I have done that I think look good, and that I have had fun painting have been done mostly opposite of this.  As was the painting of this motorcycle.

I sketched the bike and jumped right in with painting it.  The foreground, the background, the sky, they will all take care of themselves.  What I think is most important to get right, right away, is the subject of the painting.  (Yes, I will admit that I like these kind of diffuse foregrounds and backgrounds.  And if I wanted to at this poinet I could go back and put in whatever foreground or background details and no one would ever know I didn't do it the "proper" way.)

I will admit to making one HUGE error with this bike.  It was supposed to be blue!!  I was working on two paintings at once, on was drying and I started with the wrong color without thinking about it,  Oooops, what do I do?  Well, I just kind of went with it, and figured that some people have green bikes anyway.

I still like it, and hope you all do to.

Quick Pin Up Girl Sketch

Just a quick sketch to keep in practice.  Forgot to erase the drawing grid, but on a practice sheet I don't think it matters that much.

Grape Redux

Ok, I warned you this was coming.  I painted a second painting of grapes.  I don't know which one is better, and I'm not really going to try to figure it out.  I like them both.  This for me turned out to be as much an exercise in figuring out which paper I like better as much as it was painting grapes.

So I said in the last post that the other paper allowed me to play with the water a bit more.  Well, sure enough, this paper, holding true to form, sucked up so much water so quickly I had quite a hard time with any kind of details.  As I was putting the second wash on the leaves (and forming the veins) it was all I could do to keep the paper wet enough not to have terrible hard lines in it.  I had to use a small brush to paint the small area where all the veins convers (on the big leaf), but before I could move away from that spot, there were hard edges.  Happened on each of the veins I did.  I just dind't have that problem with the other paper.  I guess I could have tried to do something like cover the whole paper with a quick wash of water, but I'm always afraid that the undercoat of paint is going to run, and I really dind't want that.

Well, enough of me griping about my paper.  I'll just have to adapt and move on.  On a positive note, I think I did a good job with the different colors of purple and blue and red of the different grapes, and given that I only used Sap Green as my green in this painting, I am happy with the many shades I was able to make out of it.

Nuts!!!  I just looked back and I have no details on the wooden post.  Ah, well, it's not something that is hard to go back an put in.  After I put them on, I'll update the picture.

Well, I hope you all enjoy this one too.  I did really like painting it.  I will admit however that I don't really wanna paint circles again for a while.

Are Grapes Really Made Out of Rehydrated Raisins?

Ok, so, like so many of my other paintings, I had an idea of what I wanted to paint, and then set about searching for the right picture.  In the course of looking for that right picture, I take about 300 detours and something completely different catches my eye.  This painting falls into that same category.  I started by searching for a truck to paint.  Don't ask me how I made it to grapes, I couldn't tell you.

What I can tell you is that this painting is not painted on watercolor paper.  It is painted on Mixed Media paper. Its the same weight, but has slightly different properties.  In my little region of the world, the air is quite dry and I have trouble keeping my paper even slightly damp as I paint.  As a result, I have to be very careful or I have A LOT of hard edges.  This paper has a slightly different surface that typical watercolor paper.  It's like its a bit slicker, or harder.  At any rate, this paper gives the paint a chance at flowing on the surface without immediately being drawn into the paper and drying out.  I found the paper in several different weights,   I bought a book of 90 lb paper to use for quick sketching, but this painting was done on 140 lb paper, just like my normal watercolor paper.

I made a concerted effort to use that to my advantage in this paintings.  You can see how wet the paper got if you look at the largest grape leaf and at the post.

I did an initial wash on this painting not worrying too much about what colors were where, and not trying to keep everything in between the lines.  Just tried to get the right colors in the right general area.  Then I went back an painted everything but the veins in the leaves.  What was the most fun for me was painting the dark between the grapes.  The grapes started as just a giant blue, red, purple blob.  Then I painted the in between parts and, Ka-Pow, there were grapes.  That was fun.  Iv'e actually got another version of this painting that I am working on.  Slightly different color scheme, but same basic grapes and leaves.  Hope you enjoy this one and that one.